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Denmark High Media Independence and Informal Democratic Traditions in the Newsroom

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Denmark High Media Independence and Informal Democratic Traditions in the Newsroom Chapter 4 Denmark High media independence and informal democratic traditions in the newsroom Mark Blach-Ørsten, Rasmus Burkal, Eva Mayerhöffer, & Ida WilligI Introduction Denmark is a small Northern European country with 5.8 million inhabitants. Together with Sweden and Norway, Denmark is part of a group of Scandina- vian welfare states with a tradition of public support for both broadcasters and newspapers, strong professional associations for journalists, and a significant share of foundation-owned newspapers. Politically, Denmark is considered a mature liberal democracy. Freedom in the World 2021: status “free” (Score: 97/100, stable since 2017). Denmark is a robust democracy with regular free and fair elections. Citizens enjoy full political rights, the government protects free expression and association, and the judiciary functions independently. However, Denmark has struggled to uphold fundamental freedoms for immigrants and other newcomers. (Freedom House, 2021) Liberal Democracy Index 2020: Denmark is placed in the Top 10% bracket (rank 1 of measured countries, up from 5 in 2016) (Varieties of Democracy Institute, 2017, 2021). Freedom of Expression Index 2018: rank 2 of measured countries, up from 6 in 2016 (Varieties of Democracy Institute, 2017, 2019). 2020 World Press Freedom Index: rank 3 of 180 countries (after Norway and Fin- land, 1 and 2, respectively), up from 5 in 2019 (Reporters Without Borders, 2020). I Authors listed alphabetically Blach-Ørsten, M., Burkal, R., Mayerhöffer, E., & Willig, I. (2021). Denmark: High media independence and informal democratic traditions in the newsroom. In J. Trappel, & T. Tomaz (Eds.), The Media for Democracy Monitor 2021: How leading news media survive digital transformation (Vol. 2) (pp. 147–176). Nordicom, 147 University of Gothenburg. https://doi.org/10.48335/9789188855428-4 MARK BLACH-ØRSTEN, RASMUS BURKAL, EVA MAYERHÖFFER, & IDA WILLIG Denmark is a parliamentary democracy and, since 1953, the Danish Parliament has consisted of only one chamber: Folketinget. Elections to parliament (Folke- tinget) are held at least every four years, but it is within the power of the prime minister to call elections sooner, if he or she wishes to do so. Elections to the Danish Parliament are based on proportional representation. The parliament has 179 members, including four elected from Greenland and the Faroe Islands, which belong to the commonwealth. In 2020, there are ten national parties in the parliament making up two political blocs – the red and blue blocs. On the left, the red bloc includes the Social Democrats, The Social Liberals, The Socialist People’s Party, The Red–Green Alliance, and The Alternative (newly formed in 2015). On the right, the blue bloc includes The Liberals, The New Liberals (formed in 2018), The Conservatives, The Danish People’s Party, and Liberal Alliance. In 2019, the election saw the Social Democrats form a single party minority government with the support of all parties in the red bloc except The Alternative. The Danish media landscape has been characterised as a dual media system (Helles et al., 2011) with two dominant actors: the two public service broadcast- ers, Danmarks Radio (DR) and TV 2 on the one hand; and daily newspapers, most owned by foundations and some in commercial ownership, on the other hand. While data from the Reuters Institute Digital News Report (Newman et al., 2020) indicated that the reach of the public broadcasters had fallen since the first Reuters survey in 2013, in 2020, DR and TV 2 still reached most Danes on a weekly basis. Thus, according to the 2020 Reuters report, offline DR TV and radio reached 59 per cent of the Danish population, whereas TV 2 (TV 2 Nyhederne and 24-hour news channel TV 2 News) reached 54 per cent. Both offline and online, the largest Danish newspapers are the two tabloids, B.T. and Ekstra Bladet, who rank third and fourth in online news reach with the two public broadcasters ranking first (DR) and second (TV 2). Meanwhile, the traditional morning newspapers are struggling with a fall in their print editions but are gaining momentum online (e.g., Politiken reaching 14% of the Danish population online in 2020, but just 6% offline). Private television plays a rela- tively minor role in Denmark. Today, the private market in Denmark is largely made up by Nordic Entertainment Group (NENT), whose television channels are funded by advertisements. Discovery Networks Denmark also plays a big part within the private television market; it owns 11 commercial television channels and streaming services, such as Kanal 5 and Eurosport. Some studies show that the Nordic Entertainment Group channels reach about 10 per cent of the viewers, whereas Discovery reaches about 5 per cent. 148 ~ DENMARK ~ HIGH MEDIA INDEPENDENCE AND INFORMAL DEMOCRATIC TRADITIONS IN THE NEWSROOM Covid-19 From mid-March to mid-May 2020, the Danish government led by the Social Democrats imposed a large number of restrictions on liberal freedoms in Den- mark, such as closing borders to neighbouring countries, banning all public gatherings and events with more than 100 participants, shutting down many parts of the public sector, closing schools and universities, as well as limiting public transportation. A large part of the staff from both public service broad- casters were also sent home by the Ministry of Culture. However, this was later admitted as being a breach of the arm’s length principle. During this shutdown, linear public service television increased their audi- ence share, as did daily newspapers online. A report published in late August by the Danish Media Association – the industry organisation for private Danish media – showed an increase in the Danes’ willingness to pay for online news during the Covid-19 crisis. In June 2020, around 100,000 more Danes had access to paid digital news services as compared with October 2019. The study also indicates that during the Covid-19 crisis, Danes gained more trust in the news media and to a large extent preferred to get their news from traditional news channels rather than from social media (Danske Medier, 2020). However, because of the economic restrictions, advertising slumped between 30 to 50 per cent. This resulted in revenue losses in advertising-based media and led to lay-offs in several media companies, including at Berlingske, which is a part of our sample. In order to prevent further layoffs and collapse of media companies, the government provided two aid-packages to the private Danish news media. This prevented closures and mass firing in the media industry to some extent. On 9 June 2020, however, Denmark’s second largest media com- pany, JyskFynske Medier, announced cut-backs due to loss in advertisement revenues during the Covid-19 pandemic, which may result in the firing of up to 100 employees (Marckmann, 2020; Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, 2020). A side effect of the aid packages has been that several media outlets have registered with the Press Council (Nyhus, 2020). The Press Council is the institution in Denmark that handles complaints about the media covered by the Media Liability Act – and it is a requirement to be registered with the Press Council to access the aid packages. Leading news media sample Our media sample for the Media for Democracy Monitor (MDM) 2021 consists of ten leading news media representing different types of outlets and different types of ownership: two public service broadcasters (DR & TV 2) and the seven national newspapers: Politiken (centre-left), Berlingske (centre-right), Jyllands- Posten (centre-right), Information (centre-left), Kristeligt Dagblad (centre-right), Børsen (centre-right), Ekstra Bladet (centre-left), and B.T. (centre-right). 149 MARK BLACH-ØRSTEN, RASMUS BURKAL, EVA MAYERHÖFFER, & IDA WILLIG Indicators Dimension: Freedom / Information (F) (F1) Geographic distribution of news media availability 3 POINTS A wide variety of news media are broadly available all over Denmark. Denmark has a total of 31 daily paid-for newspapers and one free newspaper. Compared with other Scandinavian countries, Denmark has the smallest number of newspapers, which to a certain extent is an effect of different strategies of public media support (which in Sweden is directed towards the “second” newspaper of a given region). Eight of the 31 newspapers are considered national newspapers (Politiken, Berlingske, Jyllands-Posten, B.T., Ekstra- Bladet, Information, Kristeligt Dagblad, and Børsen), while the rest are either regional or local newspapers, covering all parts of the country. From 2010 to 2018, readership of the printed press fell by 41 per cent. On an average day in 2018, about 1.6 million Danes read a printed newspaper, whereas more than 1.9 million Danes accessed an online news site of a daily newspaper (Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, 2019d). The biggest national newspapers online are the two tabloids, B.T. and Ekstra Bladet, while the biggest regional newspaper is Jyske Vestkysten. However, the biggest of all online news sites are the two public service broadcasters TV 2 and DR (Schrøder et al., 2019). According to the Reuters Institute Digital News Report (Newman et al., 2020), the willingness to pay for news in Denmark is at 17 per cent, the lowest amongst Nordic countries. Norway, at 42 per cent, has the highest willingness to pay for news in the world, followed by Sweden in second position at 27 per cent and Finland a close third at 19 per cent (Schrøder et al., 2020). In general, Danish newspapers have managed to survive in a disrupted news market; there have been layoffs, but major media outlets have not closed. The regional and local media, however, are suffering an immense economic struggle. In 2018, 85 per cent of Danish households had at least one television hooked up to a television signal. However, the remaining 15 per cent could have pos- sibly either owned a Smart-TV that was hooked up to the Internet instead or streamed television on their computers (Slots- og Kulturstyrelsen, 2019e).
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